Top Advanced Diploma Programs in Food and Beverage Studies

Our programs were developed with your successful future in mind

As each new class in Pastry begins, the previous class prepares for graduation. Graduating students perfect their wedding cakes and chocolate sculpture work for final exams while the new entering students invariably drop their jaws in admiration of the artistry of the graduating class.

Every term, the new students say they can’t imagine themselves with the skills and the talent to create work like that. And every term those same new students become the graduating students preparing work at the same impressively high level.

Our instructors — and, in turn, our students — set a very high standard of performance for each new class. And each new class rises to meet it. You will, too.... [-]

Whether you want to pursue a career in Culinary Arts as an Executive Chef or as a Pastry Chef, SDCI offers a comprehensive program in both disciplines.

Both our Cuisine and Pastry programs were built around the same fundamentals: Small class sizes, career mentorship from our certified Chef Instructors, and hands-on training to learn the proper skills and techniques you'll need to succeed in any fine-dining kitchen environment. Both programs consist of lecture classes including Safety/Sanitation and Entrepreneurship. Both programs have 80% of their coursework conducted in the kitchen classroom which means more time to master your techniques. They also both end with an Externship program where you have the opportunity to work in the kitchen of a fine dining restaurant, resort, hotel, or catering company for 220 hours.... [-]

For many in the restaurant business the ultimate goal is to own their own restaurant – to create a dynamic environment that reflects their culinary aesthetic and style. The Culinary Arts and Restaurant Ownership Advanced Diploma program delivers the insights and depth of understanding to build a successful restaurant.

The advanced program starts with basic culinary skills and progresses to advanced food techniques, garnishing and presentation. Students are exposed to every facet of the industry – from cooking, baking, international cuisine to managerial, accounting and legal issues. As part of their practical training, students work in the student-run, 40-seat restaurant, where they learn to prepare modern and regional North American cuisine, and rotate working in the front and back of house.... [-]

The ‘pasticcere’ or pastry chef in the catering and hotel industries, combines in itself all the knowledge and technical skills of the traditional pastry chef, but at the same time, interprets and creates a pastry art with completely different objectives from the conventional laboratory: they contextualize their work within a team, working closely with the Executive Chef, to ensure superior quality in the catering service and within hospitality.

They are responsible for all the desserts, and not only, served during the main meals, for breakfast and in the mid-morning and mid-afternoon breaks. They deal with the preparation of savory dough for the kitchen, such as fresh pasta, but also other baked preparations, such as bakery products. Essential elements: extreme attention to detail, a strong aesthetic component during service, creativity, and transversality compared to the kitchen brigade in which they are inserted.... [-]

The chef is certainly one of the most requested figures on the job market.

It is a profession that requires passion, commitment, in-depth knowledge, and manual skills: characteristics and skills that, if cultivated and developed, can lead to great satisfaction in terms of creativity and personal affirmation.

The advent of new technologies has further enriched and completed this figure, outlining multiple possibilities for employment or self-employment.

The evolution of the trade must be based on solid foundations and CAST Alimenti, strong in its history and expertise, offers a concrete and complete intense program to build a chef and a restaurateur in step with the times, ready to face the challenge of the market through the tools learned: basic food processing techniques, traditional and modern cooking systems, aesthetics and pairing criteria to enhance the creativity of dishes, an organized, rational and efficient way of working, specific equipment and their correct usage, a winning gastronomic offer.... [-]

Programme Objectives and Learning Outcomes

At the conclusion of the programme, students will be able to:

This programme aims to prepare students with the necessary professional knowledge and skills to pursue their careers in the hotel and catering industry. The programme focuses on both theory and practical training. Through simulated working environments and industrial attachment, students can acquire relevant technical competence and professional knowledge of the industry.

This programme is designed with an emphasis on generic and language training, whole-person development and work experience to better prepare students for further studies and employment after graduation.

Semester 1

Prepares students to work in the vibrant and ever-growing catering industry, and develops their intellectual and professional competencies to meet the industry's demand for a new generation of chefs possessing not only multi-culinary and management skills, but also a professional mindset and work attitude.

Provides a broad range of topics in Chinese and Western culinary arts and sciences and clusters of culinary stream specific modules to enhance student's knowledge and skills in national/international culinary arts, in order to help students realise their interests and career aspirations.

Structured to guide students to attain knowledge in culinary niches and develop management know-how in culinary operations and catering businesses in a holistic manner.... [-]

Equips students with management knowledge and skills and practical applications in baking and pastry operations so as to prepare them for supervisory roles in the industry.

Cultivates students' notion for lifelong learning and develops students to be independent learners with a local, national and global vision for further study and professional development in the hospitality industry.

Equips students with the necessary technical and professional knowledge and skills, initially at a paraprofessional level, via the blending of theoretical and practical application.

Year 1

Students are equipped with professional knowledge and practical skills of wine and beverage, and catering industry, initially at a paraprofessional level.

After obtaining professional qualifications and undergone industrial attachments, graduates may progressively pursue a career in the wine and beverage or catering industry; or articulate to bachelor degree in either local or overseas universities; and/or articulate to further professional qualifications in their areas of interest.

Year 1